The Orioles Must Reverse Their Play On the Road. Here's How Starting Tues At Fenway Park

The Orioles have been the biggest homers in baseball, playing a preponderance of their games at home and faring quite well at Camden Yards, but a disaster in all aspects of play on the road.

Those tendencies will be put to the test starting Tuesday at Fenway Park as they hit AL East foes on the road (Toronto is next) and enter a phase in which they open June with 15 of 22 games on the road and then, in July, they come out of the All Star break with a arduous stretch of 19 of 28 on the road.

For a team that sits 9-17 away from home right now, they absolutely must keep the momentum going against a Red Sox team that sits 9-19 ay home this season and already fired its manager during their previous series with Baltimore.

The Orioles must improve their play away from home in all phases – hitting, pitching, defense, base running. On the bright side, one could say there is nowhere to go but up, with their last road swing ending with a sweep in Tampa that had their season already on the brink. Here’s what has to turn around, quickly, and what to avoid with the Red Sox:

Simplify The Approach At The Plate

The Orioles took a bunch of walks and worked counts and used quite a few well-placed, opposite field singles to fuel their 7-3 homestand (with some game-winning bombs from Colton Cowser sprinkled in, too). It’s imperative they don’t try to clobber everything over the fence at Fenway Park and keep employing some small ball and activate legs on the base paths as they did at home.

Baltimore has a .751 OPS at home, 8th-best in MLB, yet it’s just .670 on the road, 20th In MLB. More to the point, the O’s .665 OPS with runners on base on the road is 25th in the league and the change must start there. They also are striking out at an alarming 26% on the road (third most), and aren’t getting on base nearly enough (.301 OBP).

Yeah, that’s a lot to correct, and the Red Sox known starters in this series (Connelly Early and Payton Tolle) are potential budding aces. And both are left handed, which hasn’t been as big a problem for the O’s in recent weeks but definitely over recent years . And, as a preemptive strike for O’s fans everywhere, especially with Monday being an off day for The Birds, their best hitter in May in all situations – rookie catcher Samuel Basallo – needs to be in the lineup for both games. Let’s go.

Throw Strikes

The Orioles staff has been a total disaster this season for the most part, and especially on the road. The starters are on a 12-game roll with a staff ERA under 2.50 in that span and the Red Sox, when they do score at home, which doesn’t happen that much, is because of congested bases.

They do not hit home runs (Boston is 29th in MLB in slugging percentage at home - .351 – which is hard to fathom given the nature of that ballpark). Do not let them take free passes and try to create runs by stealing bases. Don’t think they are going to go chase-crazy against a group of arms that doesn’t get much swing and miss. No time for nibbling and getting behind. Stay in attack mode.

The O’s have a brutal 4.65 staff ERA on the road, 27th in baseball, walking nearly four batters per nine innings while strikeout out just eight. Their WHIP is 25th in MLB on the road; they are also giving up load contact, ranking 28th in opposing slugging percentage.

Let’s start by eliminating the free passes.

Catch The Damn Ball (And Leave O’Neill On Bench)

The Orioles outfield defense is a total mess, but, again, we are here to help. Do not put Tyler O’Neill in right field for any reason. Don’t care that he used to play in Boston. Don’t care how much he’s making.

As rough a go as Leody Taveras is having in center right now, this would seem like a big ask for Blaze Alezander with that triangle out there and the weird configurations. Alexander in right field makes a lot of sense to me (Cowser on the bench vs the lefty starters to open the series, and whichever of Basallo and Adley Rutschman who is not catching is the DH).

With how Coby Mayo is mashing lefties we figure he is at third base, which would take Alezander out of play there. Going with Taylor Ward, Alexander and O’Neill in the outfield is a recipe for disaster.

Subscribe On YouTube For The Best Ravens Coverage:

Add us as a preferred source on Google